The Dominican Republic attracted more than US $5 billion in foreign investment last year, putting the country among the Caribbean's largest destinations for overseas capital as regional economies compete for investment in tourism, energy and infrastructure.

President Luis Abinader's office highlighted the figures in an international release this week.

Foreign direct investment reached US $5.0323 billion in 2025, according to preliminary figures from the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic, an increase of US $509.1 million, or 11.3%, from 2024.

The figures mark the country's fourth consecutive annual record, according to the Dominican government, which has highlighted the investment performance as part of its efforts to attract overseas capital.

President Abinader said the country was positioning itself as "a reliable and competitive destination for foreign investment".

Tourism remained the largest recipient of foreign capital, accounting for 26.3% of investment in 2025, while energy represented 23.8%. Together, the two sectors attracted just over half of total FDI.

Real estate accounted for 15.7%, commerce and industry 10.5% and free-trade zones 8.7%. Mining represented 6.7%, while the financial sector received 3.4%.

Energy investment surges

The growing share going into energy marks a significant change in the composition of investment entering the country.

Energy accounted for 9.2% of FDI in 2019, compared with almost a quarter last year. The Central Bank has linked the increase principally to incentives for renewable-energy investment.

Dominican Republic stands out in Caribbean

The Dominican figures have wider relevance for a Caribbean region seeking international capital to finance energy, infrastructure and economic development while reducing its exposure to a narrow range of industries.

Ian Durant, a senior Caribbean Development Bank official and economist, highlighted that vulnerability at a regional risk conference last year.

"Our countries are small, open economies with no reserve currencies," Durant said. "The limited diversity in our export mix results in acute vulnerability."

The Dominican Republic stands out within that regional picture.

A joint OECD and Inter-American Development Bank report published in April found that the country attracted about US $18 billion in announced greenfield investment across 219 projects between 2014 and 2024.

Excluding oil-rich Guyana, that represented 46% of all announced greenfield investment in the Caribbean over the period.

Cuba attracted about US $7 billion and Jamaica about US $5 billion, according to the report.

Greenfield investment typically involves a foreign investor establishing a new operation or expanding productive facilities, making it a different measure from overall FDI flows.

The latest fully comparable annual FDI figures compiled by the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean also demonstrate the Dominican Republic's scale within the region.

The country received US $4.52 billion in FDI in 2024, according to ECLAC, compared with US $10.4 billion for Guyana.

Elsewhere in the Caribbean, Barbados received US $308 million, Grenada US $269 million, The Bahamas US $241 million and Jamaica US $165 million.

ECLAC said the increase in Caribbean FDI during 2024 was driven principally by Guyana and the Dominican Republic.

Guyana, however, presents a markedly different investment story.

Its emergence as a major global oil producer has brought billions of dollars into offshore petroleum development. Natural resources, particularly oil and gas, accounted for 98% of Guyana's FDI in 2024, according to ECLAC.

The Dominican Republic's inflows are spread across a broader range of sectors, led by tourism, energy and property, alongside commerce, industry and free-trade zones.

That diversification is significant in a region where tourism remains a dominant source of foreign earnings for many economies.

The OECD and IDB said Caribbean economies remain "heavily service-oriented and narrowly diversified", leaving them particularly exposed to global economic shocks and natural disasters.

Services account for 63% of Caribbean exports, while tourism represents an average 71% of services exports, according to the organisations.

Renewable energy is emerging as another important destination for international capital.

Between 2014 and 2024, the Caribbean attracted about US $5 billion in announced greenfield investment in renewable energy, according to the OECD-IDB report.

Renewable-energy projects accounted for about 24% of the Dominican Republic's announced greenfield investment over that period.

The report said foreign investment "can play a key role" in areas including renewable energy, digital transformation and manufacturing, while cautioning that the development benefits of FDI depend on domestic policies and the ability of economies to connect foreign investment with local businesses and workers.

What it means for Cayman

For Cayman, a direct headline comparison with the Dominican Republic's US $5 billion figure would be misleading.

The two economies differ substantially in population, land area and economic structure, while Cayman's position as an international financial centre means conventional measures of cross-border capital flows do not necessarily reflect investment taking place in the domestic economy.

International datasets also frequently treat Caribbean financial centres separately when analysing regional FDI because large financial flows can distort comparisons with economies where investment is principally associated with physical projects and operating businesses.

The Dominican numbers nevertheless provide a useful benchmark for Cayman and other Caribbean jurisdictions competing for capital in sectors including tourism, real estate, energy and infrastructure.

They also highlight the scale of capital flowing into renewable energy elsewhere in the region as Cayman considers its own energy transition and the investment required for future infrastructure.

Competition for capital

The broader Caribbean faces a significant financing challenge.

The OECD and IDB said total investment across Caribbean economies amounted to about 28% of GDP in 2023, above averages for Latin America and OECD economies.

But public infrastructure investment has remained at just over 1% of GDP in recent years, according to the organisations, leaving substantial financing needs in transport, energy, digital infrastructure and climate resilience.

The report identifies sustainable tourism, renewable energy and transport, the blue economy, sustainable agriculture and digital transformation among the areas offering opportunities to attract more productive investment.

For the Dominican Republic, the Abinader administration has sought to increase investment through fiscal incentives, trade agreements and reforms intended to reduce administrative barriers.

The United States remains the country's largest source of foreign investment, according to the government.

The Dominican Republic is also part of the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA-DR, providing a trade and investment framework with the US and participating Central American economies.

The government has also promoted ‘ProDominicana's Single Investment Window’, known as VUIRD, which it says consolidates more than 41 procedures involving 26 public institutions.

The 2025 FDI figures remain preliminary, and the headline total does not by itself establish how the investment will translate into jobs, productivity or wider economic growth.

But the scale and composition of the inflows point to a changing regional investment landscape.

Tourism remains the Dominican Republic's largest recipient of overseas capital, but energy is closing the gap, while property, industry and free-trade zones continue to attract substantial investment.

For Caribbean economies competing for international capital, the Dominican Republic's latest record illustrates both the scale of investment available and the growing importance of attracting it beyond traditional tourism industries.